Arkansas Tech women's basketball extended its winning streak to seven Saturday as the Golden Suns used a strong second-half effort to post a decisive 87-68 victory over Northwest Missouri State in nonconference action at Tucker Coliseum.

"That first 4 minutes of the second half was the difference for our team tonight," Golden Suns head coach Dave Wilbers said. "We told the players at the half that we have to be our best coming out of the locker room, and tonight we were."

Tech, who led 39-38 at the half, used an 11-0 run with six points from junior forward Amanda Grappe to turn a 40-39 deficit just 36 seconds out of halftime into a 50-40 lead with 16:26 left in the game.

Following Tech's run, Northwest used a 9-6 run to pull within 56-49 with 13:24 left in the game on a lay-up by Amber Vandevender, but that would be as close as the Lady Bearcats would get as Tech used a 13-7 run to push out to a 69-56 lead on a basket by sophomore guard Julie Smith.

Tech's lead eventually grew to as much as 21 points at 87-66 with 1:17 left in the game on a lay-up by Grappe before the Lady Bearcats closed the game's scoring on two free throws by Meghan Brue with 1:06 remaining in the game.

Grappe led the way for the Golden Suns as she tallied a career-high 34 points and added 12 rebounds for her first double-double of the season and just the fourth of her Tech career.

"Amanda was unbelievable tonight," Wilbers said. "She played by far her best game of the season and seemed to carry us in the second half."

After scoring 12 points in the first half, Grappe scored 22 points in the second half, including going 8-for-10 at the free-throw line after halftime.

In addition to Grappe, sophomore guard Brittany Gottsponer added a career-high 18 points and Smith added a career-high 12 points off the bench in the win.

"It was a team effort tonight by our players," Wilbers said. "They (Northwest Missouri) have a good team and play in a good conference, so to beat them by 19 points is a great win."

The Lady Bearcats, who fell to 4-2 with the loss, were led offensively by Brue's 19 points and eight rebounds, while Lauren Williams had 13 points before fouling out with seven minutes left in the game and Kelli Nelson chipped in with 11 points.

"We are shooting the ball really well over the past four or five games and our players are playing with a lot of confidence," Wilbers added. "Plus, we are getting good shots out of our offense and are able to hit three-pointers at key times in games."

The one negative was turnovers as Tech committed a game-high 21 turnovers, while Northwest had 16 turnovers. Despite committing 21 turnovers, Tech was able to hold a 21-17 edge in points off turnovers for the game.

Tech will now take 10 days off for final exams and the completion of the first semester before returning to action at 5:30 p.m. Dec. 18 against Montevallo at Tucker Coliseum.

See continuing coverage of the Golden Suns' season in future editions of The Courier.